Three weeks into the new year and I’ve had three Wednesdays of writing. Fingers crossed.
I’ve wanted to address the issue of Banned Books for a while because I read some interesting posts on Facebook, and these ideas have been percolating in my head.
The entire process of prohibition is one imbibed with futility. The moment you ban something, everyone wants a piece of that. If we look back at history, we only have to realize that mankind is remarkably talented at identifying loopholes in regulations, or subverting edicts resulting in a form of sedition.
If this is true of adults, why are we surprised when children engage in it? They are mini-men, miniature adults. The germination of our seditious thoughts stem from juvenile experiences, do they not?
I am choosing not to address the preclusion of other contraband, and choose to focus entirely on books – children’s books to be specific.
Books represent fountains of knowledge, they always have. If a publisher can be found, or a scribe (in ancient times), then there is no limit to who can have access to a writer’s thoughts. Yes, lets admit, not all writers’ thoughts are worthy, or worthwhile. The genre of children’s literature alone is vast. As a parent there is absolutely no way you’re going to be able to read all the books your kids get.
However just because you can’t skim through the latest book your child has, it doesn’t mean that you should place an embargo on certain books. In that case I’d ban Enid Blyton books in my household right now. Blyton’s racism was identified as early as the 1960s, its even mentioned in her Wikipedia page. Despite this some of my best memories of childhood include myself, my bed and an Enid Blyton book. So no, I’m not going to stop my children from reading Famous Five. We constantly forget that writers themselves are products of their environment; their social and political situations. Writers spew out views that they are subjected to, sometimes consciously and at other times subconsciously. An excellent example would be the educational system under Hitler-led Nazi Germany when children were intentionally indoctrinated with anti-semitic values.
Luckily for us, we don’t live in Nazi Germany? The same thing’s happening in Sri Lanka today. If you happen to glance through a History textbook taught in majority of schools following the NES system in Sri Lanka, you’ll understand what I mean. The GCE History textbook is heavily biased and omits many important aspects of our nation’s history. Our local schools’ education curriculum is in desperate need of objectivity, but few have identified this pertinent need. Fortunately parents are so busy looking at the literature their children read, they rarely check the Government proscribed textbooks.
I take particular offense at the bans parents make on the literature their kids read. Mostly because of frivolous reasons: the book has the word ‘fuck’ in it; the characters say ‘shit’; the character is rude to his/her parents; there is magic in it and this questions my religion. The list is endless. Let’s face it guys, these kids will eventually learn these words, and if you’ve practiced a religion for a while a child cannot sustain opposing beliefs. And most importantly, don’t forget ALL kids go through PHASES; they did as infants, they will as teens.
Parents are also the first to complain that their children don’t read. This complaint is the bane of my existence as a teacher. I wish I could turn to parents and ask them, ‘Yes but do YOU read?’ or ask ‘What kind of books do you buy for your child?’. Instead I subvert this complaint with a banal smile, and mutter that I cannot (as a teacher) inculcate a reading habit in a child I’ve just met because I have a syllabus to teach.
A book, since the very first Book (The Bible), has always been sacred. It has, and continues to be, a repository of knowledge. This knowledge can be good, bad, horrendous – who knows? Eitherway if it contains knowledge, chances are it will open up your mind or your child’s mind. Understand first what kind of book you are reading. Then, enjoy it. Then, think about it.
My son is currently into ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’. I bought him the first book and now both him and my daughter have all the books in the series and at times re-read the books. The protagonist in these novels is rude and is going through puberty. Shevin has asked me some interesting questions! Do I question my decision in giving an 8 year old and a 6 year old access to these books? No. Why? Because they can read them all by themselves. Do they ask me questions? Yes. Do I answer them honestly? As much as I can – or I say let me explain this to you later. Do we talk about the bad stuff Greg does? Yes we do. It is important to me that I understand Jeffy Kinney’s goal in writing this series; he’s trying to present a ‘different’ story so he can sell more books. The story is in a mixed medium and is quaint, in its own way. Its also part of a successful movie franchise. I can’t fault Jeff Kinney for any of this. Neither can I punish Shevin for asking me about facial and body hair.
Encouraging a child reader is also encouraging a leveling-up of his her vocabulary, thoughts and ideas. There has to be a gradual progression in books he/she is exposed to, or else he/she will stop reading – and that’s a fucking crime. Yet this is the sad story. In order to ‘protect’ our children we hold them back and impose sanctions on what they are exposed to. Keeping him/her on the same level of reading merely because you are uncomfortable or uninformed about something is a crime and a punishment. A child needs to be exposed to something ‘bad’ to identify what is ‘good’.
We easily forget that each child’s mental growth process is different. For example my daughter, at 6, is on the same reading level as my son, who is 8. Please don’t justify this to me because she is a girl and tell me that her gender plays a role in this because I will not allow myself to go on that particular thought train. She is this way because of her context: when Shevin was learning to read she ardently watched and repeated. Her induction into reading and writing came as a process of mimicry; ‘I want to be like Ayia so I will copy him’. Her mimicry became so excessive that when he had bad handwriting, so did she. He still has bad handwriting, but she has realized that bad handwriting puts her out of favor with the teacher and so she has changed her behaviour, all on her own. This is what I mean by mental growth. Exposure encourages mental growth which spurs critical thinking. We have too many automatons in the world today. We need more critical thinkers.
We cannot have critical thinkers when we restrict the growth of a child’s thought by placing restrictions on what he/she reads.
That’s the sum total of my argument.
Encourage reading. Don’t stop reading. Read far and wide; high and low. Read badly written books and identify that they’re badly written. Read something with beautiful prose or poetry and fall in love with the cadence and rhythm of that. Or get lost in the visual imagery that a writer creates for you in that world inside your head. Close a book and feel like you’ve unplugged a life support system, revisit that book again and again and be revitalized. Put a book down and think, and think and think. Let your thoughts percolate in your head and get lost in those thoughts.
If you have a child, my advice is to start reading. Read a book while your infant plays. Show your baby that you read. And just like toddlers parallel play, parallel read. Keep doing this – you won’t lose out, and neither will your child. But please, don’t don’t ban books in your home.
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